LITTLE ROCK — Over two years, the Game and Fish Commission paid more than $800,000 to vendors who either didn’t have contracts with the commission or were in excess of contract compensation limits.
These payments included nearly $180,000 to vendors without contracts and about $638,000 in excess of the limits, a state audit says.
The public-relations firm of Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods of Little Rock was paid $278,444 more than its limit, and the Perkins & Trotter law firm of Little Rock was paid $331,740 more than its limit, Deputy Legislative Auditor Charles Fiser said.
The report by the Legislative Audit Division also found that “contract services” through communications firm Martin-Wilbourn Partners LLC of Little Rock started last year nearly a month before the commission executed a contract with the firm.
Last December, a former commission chairman, Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock, prompted the audit by asking the division to investigate allegations he had made. At the time, he also was making other allegations against commissioners Craig Campbell of Little Rock, Emon Mahony of El Dorado and Rick Watkins of Little Rock. They said those allegations were untrue.
Legislative Auditor Roger Norman said the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s executive committee authorized the review, which covered fiscal 2009 and 2010.
“Our system was obviously broken, and because of that errors occurred,” Game and Fish Commission Director Loren Hitchcock said Tuesday of the audit, which was released March 16 and was largely overlooked during the hubbub of the legislative session under way at the time. “We are fixing these problems,and don’t look for it to be an issue again.”
The commission didn’t have computer software to catch the payments that exceeded the contract limits and “we were relying on individual postings to draw down payments ... and that got way behind, and it left us with contracts that were overdrawn,” he said.
The commission has a fiscal officer who is in charge of contracts and “obviously that didn’t go very well,” Hitchcock said.
This fiscal year the commission’s budget is $92 million, he said.
The commission determines contract amounts on the basis of “factual needs and necessity” and not “a wild ... guess,” he said when asked how contract amounts are determined.
In response to the audit, Hitchcock’s letter to the committee said a computer software program to manage and monitor contracts is being developed.
It “will ensure we have active contracts before payments are made to vendors, and that those payments are not in excess of the contract terms,” he wrote. “In the interim, additional controls have been put in place for monitoring by the responsible division.”
Hitchcock’s letter said commission employees have been notified that contract documents “must be fully executed before the vendors are authorized to begin the professional services.”
In addition, employees “have been instructed to ensure that the description of services is sufficiently detailed so that services can be measured and verified prior to payment,” it said.
Nelson, a lawyer, was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor twice and a commission member from 2000-2007.
Among other things, he claimed that Campbell, Mahony and Watkins manipulated the commission last year into adopting a committee structure that gives them actual control, an allegation they have called nonsense.
“It looks to me like they have been going haywire,” Nelson said Tuesday about the commission as a whole.
“It shows they haven’t been taking care of business,” he added in blaming Campbell, Mahony and Watkins, none of whom could be reached for comment later Tuesday. Commissioner Ron Duncan of Springdale declined to comment.
Commissioner George Dunklin said, “We’ll correct the deficiencies we have got. Things happen.”
In a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court, Nelson asks the court to rule that the commission must follow the state Administrative Procedures Act, which sets forth a process for establishing state agencies’ rules, and the state Freedom of Information Act, which the commission briefly considered supplanting with rules providing less information than the law requires be available to the public.
When Nelson asked in December for an investigation, he alleged that the hiring by the commission of the Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow PLLC to represent it in defending against Nelson’s lawsuit violated a state law that requires state agencies to rely on the attorney general for legal advice or get theattorney general’s permission before hiring outside counsel. The division’s report didn’t address that matter.
Fiser, the deputy legislative auditor, pointed to a Dec. 16 letter to Nelson from Chief Deputy Attorney General Bradford Phelps that said “while we appreciate the confidence you express in our office, we believe that undertaking representation of the Game and Fish Commission is not warranted absent a request from the commission. We believe their interests can be protected by their in-house counsel or outside attorneys.”
Nelson acknowledged Tuesday that the commission may have authority to hire an outside law firm on its own under Amendment 35 of the state constitution, which grants the commission some independence.
The commission believes that under state law it has authority to hire an outside law firm without the attorney general’s permission, said commission spokesman Keith Stephens.
In a separate letter to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel in December, Nelson said that the commission could have violated state purchasing laws in its contracting with Martin-Wilbourn Partners. At that time, commissioner Watkins said he disagreed with Nelson’s allegation. Asked about Nelson’s allegation, Fiser said Tuesday that the commission is exempt from the state’s purchasing laws.
Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley said his office has a copy of the report from the division but he hasn’t had a chance to review it.
EXCEEDING LIMITS
The report said the commission’s payments to vendors exceeded the terms of contracts by $491,597 during fiscal 2009 and $147,387 during fiscal 2010.
Payments to Cranford Johnson Robinson Wood exceeded a $300,000 contract by $247,163 in fiscal 2009 and by $31,281 in fiscal 2010, Fiser said. The contract was for advertising and public relations to inform the public about the commission, he said.
Payments to the Perkins & Trotter law firm exceeded a $115,000 contract in fiscal 2009 by $244,434 and a $15,565 contract with in fiscal 2010 by $87,306, Fiser said. The contract was for legal representation and general consulting on pending legal matters, he said.
Lawyer Scott Trotter, a partner in Perkins & Trotter, referred to the commission questions about whether the firm contacted the commission and informed it that it was paying more than the contract allowed. A representative for Cranford Johnson Robinson Wood could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Hitchcock said he wasn’t informed that either firm contacted the commission to say too much was being paid.
He said the contract for each firm was later amended to reflect the higher payments.
Fiser said commission payments to Mark Damian Duda & Associates of Harrisonburg, Va., also exceeded a $110,825 contract in fiscal 2010 by $28,800. The contract was to develop a 10-year strategic plan for the commission, he said.
Stephens said “the related contract” with the firm expired March 31, 2010, but $62,933 in expenses were made after that date and $28,800 of that amount exceeded the remaining budget for the contract.
WITHOUT CONTRACTS
The Legislative Audit Division’s report said the commission also made payments to vendors without a contract totaling $116,992 in fiscal 2009 and $62,933 in fiscal 2010.
Fiser said the commission paid $62,933 to Mark Damian Duda & Associates without a contract in fiscal 2010, $60,000 to David W. Manns in fiscal 2009 without a contract and $56,992 to Atoka Inc. of Hot Springs in fiscal 2009 without a contract. Manns worked in Russellville and Washington, D.C., according to Stephens.
Manns provided consulting services tied to implementation of a plan providing for minimum water flowat Beaver Lake and Norfork Lake, Fiser said. Atoka Inc. provided expert-witness testimony in a lawsuit involving timber damage in the Black River wildlife management area, he said.
Hitchcock said the commission already had made payments to Manns before auditors questioned them, so there was no reason to draw up a contract for the payments because “it was a moot issue.”
MARTIN-WILBOURN
As for the commission’s contract with Martin-Wilbourn Partners for a communications plan and related services, the division said “contract services” started on Oct. 8, 2010, on the basis of the first vendor invoice although the contract wasn’t executed until Nov. 4, 2010.
“Management indicated the vendor was given verbal approval to begin work after the commission approved a $10,000 budget increase, which was documented as approved in the commission minutes of Oct. 21, 2010, for the development of a communication plan,” the report said.
The cost of vendor services totaled $20,400 during the period from Oct. 15, 2010-Nov. 30, 2010, and that exceeded the original contract amount of $10,000, the report said. The contract amount was amended to $50,000 on Dec. 1, 2010.
The report said invoices supporting the first three payments totaling $33,450 didn’t provide a description of consulting projects for which services were billed. These invoices included charges of $32,400 for 216 hours of consultation services and $1,050 for development of a communications audit, the report said. The commission obtained a letter from Martin-Wilbourn providing adequate details for the consultation hours charged on these invoices, the report said.
The Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s Committee on State Agencies is to review the report Thursday afternoon during its meeting in Little Rock.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/11/2011